Lobster Party A Hit

Posted by Wayne Harper on Aug 28, 2016

In the twilight of a beautiful day, 24 members and their guests met at Louise MacKinnon's house for the 2016 version of our annual Lobster Party. This is the second year the party has been held at Louise's house and the second year 20-odd Rotarians have helped Louise & Rob celebrate their

wedding anniversary.

This year Sandy baked them a cake and they received the Club's best wishes in the form of a signed card.

This year we had touring Rotarians from the Isle of Wight and Briarwood as special guests.

Adrian Brewer and Cindy Titus are crossing Canada to ask Rotary Clubs across this great Nation to help them distribute water containers to Africans.

A recent study of sub-Saharan African countries shows that in just ONE day, women collectively spend an estimated 16 million hours fetching water. – 16 MILLION HOURS - carrying their own weight in water, in dirty jerry cans and containers, not just from a local pump (a few hundred yards away) but sometimes over 6 miles or even further, just to survive.

Imagine how much time and effort these ladies are putting in to just one task – the collection of water. Now imagine if we could send our Rotary Water Barrels to help these women, and cut down 16 million hours, to just 4 million hours each day.

Imagine what they could do with the rest of their time? Imagine how many lives we could save.

The time could now be spent in education, health and welfare, as well as domestic issues and tasks.

We can empower these women and enrich their lives.

The Rotary Water Barrel is the INSTANT solution!

The container allows African women and children to push/pull water containers instead of putting them on their heads, shoulders or carrying them in their arms. Also larger, they reduce the number of trips they have to make to the water source. The initiative, aptly named "Roll Out The Barrell", will see thousands of African women and children given these barrels.

Adrian explained that he was not here soliciting funds from our club. Instead, in this country, the emphasis will be on moving a barrell across the Canada Trail from coast to coast and club-to-club. Along the way, it is hoped that Club will either donate or make their community aware, so donations may be given.

Following the presentation, President Josh and Adrian exchange club banners.

With the formal part of the meeting over, it was time to delve into a feed of lobster (and for some of us - steak).

As if the lobster and steak were not enough, one couldn't miss the selection of desserts - yum! Alas. as darkness set in, we wandered home to think about the next social event on September 30th at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute. Don't miss it! I'm sure this cool dude won't.